Anyone ever attempts to write Photoshop tutorial knows that to be able to produce a good result is one thing, to write an excellent tutorial based on that result is another. Sometime it’s difficult to explain in detail how to achieve certain effect in Photoshop, although the writers tried their best.

In this post, I collected 15 fresh, Well-Explained Photoshop Tutorials with Fantastic End Result. These are high quality tutorials that would surely impress you, take a look :) I’m sure you will learn lots!

Here goes the list, enjoy! (You can click on the title or the image to view the tutorial)

Create a fantasy-horror scene in Photoshop

Today I’ll drive you through the process of making a fantasy horror scene in Photoshop. We will use some of our grunge textures to realize the background scene, several Photoshop filters to create light effects and we will turn the picture of an innocent child into a diabolic character. I’ll show you how the liquify filter can be used to modify face lineaments. Inspiration derives from horror movie posters design. Are you ready to enter in the dark horror world?

- source: wegraphics.net

Dark, Moody and Comical Photoshop Effect

Create a Dark, Moody and Comical Photoshop Effect and sexy artwork by following a few simple steps! Inspired by Max Payne and Sin City.

- source: anothera.net

Create a beautiful illustrated sketch effect

Today i will show you how to do a nice illustrated sketch effect.

- source: pureromance88.ucoz.com

Making of Fotia

In this tutorial George Patsouras describes in details how his work “Fotia” was created and gives useful tips.

- source: dtuts.com

Photoshop & Illustrator Tutorial: High-end photo compositing techniques

Want to merge a number of images seamlessly into one design? In this tutorial, Kevin Roodhorst illustrates how to make an Africa-inspired graphic compiled from a number of photographic elements. You will be shown how to add several textures and effects, including lighting effects, using Photoshop and Illustrator.

- source: digitalartsonline.co.uk

How To Give Your Photos a Cool Retro Analog Effect

Back in the days of analog photography imperfections were part of the job. Colour washes, light leaks, vignettes and blurs were all common problems that appeared during the processing of your film, particularly from cheap cameras such as the Holga, or simply down to human error. While these problems don’t affect digital cameras, we can recreate the cool effects in Photoshop to give our shots that cool lo-fi retro effect.

- source: blog.spoongraphics.co.uk

Create an Ink Splattering Knight Composition

In this tutorial, we will see how to use Photoshop filters and brushes to create an ink splattering knight composition. This is a relatively simple technique, which yields excellent artistic results.

- source: 10steps.sg

How to Create an Essentially Beautiful Flyer

In today’s tutorial we will be showing you how to make use of simple elements and colors in Photoshop to get an essentially beautiful outcome. People always over complicate things, that’s why we will be having a simple approach towards this large piece. We will be teaching you in a step by step manner and hopefully you can learn something new from this tutorial. Let’s get to it.

- source: photoshoplady.com

Photoshop Tutorial: Paint with fire

In this tutorial, we’re going to take a simple model shot and transform it into a spitting, crackling beacon of fire.

- source: digitalartsonline.co.uk

How to create retro aesthetic poster in Photoshop

Today, I’m going to show you how to blend a stock image with shapes and pattern, add lightness and color to get a nice retro poster in Adobe Photoshop CS4. Layered PSD file included. Let’s get started!

- source: adobetutorialz.com

Artistic dreamy effect

Make a soft dreamy effect using simple techniques to give fantastic and artistic look to your picture.

- source: pureromance88.ucoz.com

How to create a melancholy model photo manipulation

This tutorial was born with a specific aim. I was playing with the image of a beautiful model, with the intention to realize a simple photo retouch tutorial, thought for all those who are approaching to photography and need simple Photoshop skills to embellish their models shots.

- source: wegraphics.net

Create an Incredible Avatar Inspired Matte Painting of Pandora

The artworks from Avatar and the visual effects from the film were largely considered some of the highest quality and innovative artworks seen in film up until that point, perhaps rivaled only by Star Wars in terms of their ingenuity and use of new techniques for visual effects.

- source: creativefan.com

Develop a Dynamic Illustration for a Dance Motion in Photoshop

This tutorial shows how to create fantastic image poster in Photoshop. We will concentrate on masking and adjusting color parameters mainly. We will put parts of stocks to use in order to improvement defects and elaborate details.

- source: free-web-design.co.cc

Show me the light – digital art tutorial

In this photoshop tutorial I will show you how to use stock images to make a beautiful digital artwork with nicely colored lights.

- source: psdbox.com

That’s it for this post! Hope you enjoy it and find those tutorial useful and inspirational!

Till next time, have a nice day!

In this post, I hand-picked 25 Fresh and Ultra Creative Text Effect Artworks to Spark Your Imagination. Those works are from the creattica.com community and are of high standards. I always go there to take a look at their showcases when I’m lack of inspiration :) So if you’re interested, head over and take a look!

Here goes the list, enjoy!

Note: You can click on the image to view its source on creattica.

That’s it for this post! Hope you enjoy those text effect artworks and find them inspirational!

Till next time, have a great day!

Welcome to the In second volume of Photoshop Mini tutorial series, which is a series I started specifically for Photoshop beginner – to help them understand various aspect of Photoshop by designing something simple but cool.

In the tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to Elegant Curvy Lines with Pen Tool in Photoshop. You can use this skill in lots of designs such as banners, photo effects and even making a wallpaper. The steps are really simple, have a try :)

Here is a preview of the final effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive! Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

OK let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1000px * 600px, press “G” and use the gradient fill tool, select the “Radial Gradient” fill option from the option bar, fill the background layer as shown below:

Step 2

Now create a new layer called “curves” and use the Pen Tool to create a work path as shown below: (Before you make the path, make sure you choose the “Path” option on the option bar)

Continue and close this work path:

With the Pen Tool selected, right-click inside the closed path and choose “Fill Path” and fill the path with white colour:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 3

Change the blending mode of this curve layer to “Soft Liight”:

Apply the following Gradient Overlay option to this layer:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 4

Now we can add a few more lines to the image. There are two ways to do it: one is to duplicate the original curve line layer and adjust the position, the other method is to use this opportunity to have another practice with the Pen Tool. For this tutorial, we will be using the second method.

Create a new layer and use the Pen Tool to create another work path, then hold down the Ctrl Key, and click and drag the Control Point as shown below to alter the shape of the path:

Fill the path using the same method as described in previous step, and adjust the position for each layer as shown below: (also adjust the layer opacity so they have a fade-in effect)

Finally we can add some random bokeh effect to spice up the image. To do this, grab a round, hard brush and press F5 to bring up the brush options, apply the following settings:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

and make sure you tick the “Airbrush”, “Smoothing”, “Protect Texture” options.

Then simply create a new layer on top of all previous layers, set the blending mode to “Soft light” and use this brush to paint over it:

You can alter the background layer colour to be any colour you like, and those curves we created will still work:

That’s it for this beginner-level mini Photoshop tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. Until next time, have a great day!

Recently I went and saw the movie “Inception” and thought it was really awesome. That’s why I thought I can probably try and create a similar effect using Photoshop and make a tutorial of it for you guys :)

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this Surreal/Sci-fi Environment Inspired by the “Inception” Movie in Photoshop. Some steps can be a little tricky, but why not have a try!

Here is a preview of the final effect we will be aiming to achieve: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies there. Signup now and get exclusive! Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

You will need the following stock to complete this tutorial:

Ocean

Sky

Building

Wave

Girl

OK let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 900 * 1300px, fill the background layer with black colour. Load the “Ocean” stock image into Photoshop, use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select a portion of it, paste it onto our document. Name this layer as “Ocean”:

Duplicate this ocean layer once and apply the following “Reduce Noise” filter once:

As you can see, the ocean looks a lot smoother and calmer then before:

Duplicate the original ocean once more and drag it to the top, chnage the blending mode of this second duplicated layer to “color doge”. You will have the following effect:

Add a Levels adjustment layer to it: (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Add a Black and White adjustment layer on top of all layers, this time DO NOT tick the “”use previous layer as clipping mask” option:

You will have the following effect:

Use a big soft brush to the erase top edge of the ocean as shown below:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 2

Load the “Sky” image into Photoshop, select a portion of it with the rectangular marquee tool, copy and paste the selection onto our document, resize and position it as shown below:

Erase the bottom edge with soft brush:

Add a black and white adjustment layer with the following settings on it: (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

and here is the effect so far:

Step 3

Load the “Building” image into Phtooshop, use the quick selection tool to select any one of the highrises: (I use the one on the right)

Paste the selection onto our canvas, use a soft brush to erase the top and left edge of the layer:

Make sure you erase the bottom left edge of the building so it fades into the cloud:

Black and white

Levels

Mask on the levels adjustment layer:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 4

Now let’s add some splashing wave to the bottom of the building. Load the “Wave” stock image into Photoshop, cut a piece of the wave and paste it onto our document, resize and position it to the bottom of the building, as shown below:

Erase the edges with soft brush:

Black and white:

Levels

and here is the effect so far:

Step 5

Now make a layer group and put all the layers links to the building on the right under it, duplicate this layer group once, and hit Ctrl + T and right-click, choose “Flip Horizontal”:

Then move this duplicated group to the left side of the image, as shown below:

Load the “Girl” Stock image into Photoshop, cut out the girl and paste it onto our document, name the new layer as “girl”:

Erase the erase of the girl as shown below so she blending it with the surroundings:

Create a new layer called “glow” and use a soft white brush, paint around the girl to create some glow effect:

Create a new layer called “splash” under the girl layer, grab some waves from the “Wave” stock image and paste it onto it, reduce the layer opacity to low level around 20%, also perspective it a bit so it looks more realistic:

Add the following three adjustment layers on top of the girl layer (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Curves

Black and White

and here is the effect so far:

Step 6

Now let’s add some textures over the image. You can use any grunge or abstract brushset and paint on a  new layer, set the layer opacity to around 50%. Here is my effect after the painting:

Add a new Curve image adjustment layer on top of all layers with the following settings:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 7

Now let’s fill the empty sky portion within some surreal effect. I thought of using the polar coordinates filter to add a few black holes on it.

So let’s flatten the iamge, and duplicate the background layer once and apply the following Polar Coordinates Filter to it: (Filter > Distort > Polar Coordinates)

and you will have the following effect:

Resize this layer to the small size, then distort it and a bit and use a soft brush to erase the edges, as shwon below:

Duplicate this layer a few times, rotate, resize each of the duplicated layer, move them to the position shown below to create some variety:

Once you’re done, sharpen the background layer a bit and here is the final effect: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this Photoshop tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. Until next time, have a great day!

In this tutorial, I will show you how you can Create this Awesome Abstract Photo Effect via Layer Masking and Custom Patterns. Some steps can be a little tricky, but why not have a try!

Along the way, I will show you some interesting method of making custom, abstract style patterns by mixing hard and soft round brush, plus some lighting techniques.

Here is a preview of the final effect we will be aiming to achieve: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies there. Signup now and get exclusive! Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

You will need the following stock to complete this tutorial:

Model

Cloud Brush

Smoke Brush

Star Brush 1

Star Brush 2

OK let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 800px * 1044px, fill the background layer with black colour. Create a new layer called “background light” and use the Cloud Brush and big soft white brush, create some random light as shown below:

Load the Model image into Photoshop, cut out the model and paste it onto our document. Don’t worry if edges appear to be a bit rough – this is not important for this tutorial as we will be masking them out later on.

We will be doing a bit of retouching for this model. If you look closely, you will see some black spots on the girl’s cheek. We will remove them by using the healing brush, as shown below:

This is the effect after applying the healing brush:

Grab the Sharpen Tool from the toolbox, set strength to around 20%, apply some sharp effect onto the girl:

Hair

Lips

Step 2

We can create some abstract pattern by mixing Soft and Hard Circle round brush. As you can see, below is a big soft white brush with 0% hardness (a single-click):

Now grab the eraser tool, set the brush hardness to 100% for the round brush, do a single-click to the position shown below:

Then use the free tranform tool to warp it, distort it, whatever you like:

You can create abstract shape like this, which you can then apply to the image:

Meanwhile, you can add some shining stripes by doing the followings:

Firstly use a soft white brush to do a single-click on the top edge:

Then compress it down using the free-transform tool:

Rotate it to an angle you prefer:

By repeating the steps shown above, we can create some cool abstract patten quickly and use the to spice up the effect:

and this is the overall effect so far: (you effect may look different, as the pattern you create may be different from mine)

Step 3

Now let’s add a layer mask on the model layer, use a combination of hard, soft and smoke brush sets on it. Use your own creativity on the mask, and see what result it brings you:

and here is my effect after messing up with my layer mask:

Add a Curves adjustment layer to the top of the model layer: (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option when adding them)

As you can see, by adjusting the channels on the curves adjustment layer, we can add colours to the image:

I added another levels adjsutment layer as clipping mask to increase the contrast a bit:

Mask on the levels adjustment layer:

here is the effect so far:

Step 4

Now let’s play with the lighting effect for a while. Create a new layer on top of all previous layer called “highlights” and set the blending mode to “overlay”, use a soft white brush to do a single-click to the spot shown below:

Create another light layer on top and use a big soft white brush to do a single-click on the spot shown below:

Optional: duplicate this light layer once for brighter effect:

We can add some light strips to the image. Grab a big soft brush to do a single-click on a new layer:

Then narrow it down by using the free transform tool:

and add those lights on the position shown below:

Step 5

Now let’s use the star brushes we downloaded to paint some star to the image, make sure you use a mixture of big and small stars:

(you can either create a new layer on top of all previous layer to paint star, or you can create layer below the original model layer if you want to add stars behind the model)

Also make sure you use both white and black colour to paint the star.

Once you’re done with the painting, add the following two adjustment layers on top:

Color Balance

Layer Mask on Colour Balance adjustment layer:

Vibrance

Layer Mask on Vibrance adjustment layer:

and here is the effect you will have so far:

For some final lighting touch-ups, you can use the dodge tool (set strength to around 30%) to add some highlights to the girls hair and face, as shown below: (after you flatten the image)

and here is the final effect: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this Photoshop tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. Until next time, have a great day!

Welcome to the 26th volume of “Creativity Fine-Tuning: Best of PSD Vault Flickr Group”, which is a showcase I run regularly here on psdvault.com featuring some fantastic, highly-creative design works in the PSD Vault Flickr Group.

Hope you enjoy those works as much as I did and find them inspirational! Meanwhile, if you have some cool designs and would like to be featured here on PSD Vault, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group.

If you like those works, then show those awesome designers some support! Click on the image to visit the author’s flickr page and drop them a comment :)

Here goes the list, enjoy!

That’s it for this post! Hope you enjoy it and find it inspirational! Remember, if you have some cool designs and would like to be featured here, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group and sumbit your work there.

Until next time, have a  nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you how you can quickly and effectively Create Fantasy Scene via Combining Landscape Images in Photoshop. Some steps can be a little tricky for beginners, but why not have a try!

Along the way, we will be using techniques such as layer blending options, masking, image adjustments, cloud rendering, custom brushsets, as well as various tools from the toolbox.

Here is a preview of the final effect we will be aiming to achieve: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies there. Signup now and get exclusive! Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

You will need the following stock to complete this tutorial:

Some Cloud Brushsets

Dirt Brushsets

Lookout Tower

Grass Field 1

Grass Field 2

Mountain

OK let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 900px * 1200px, leave the background colour as white, create a new layer on top of it called “sky gradient”, grab the gradient tool from the toolbox and fill this layer as shown below:

Create another layer and use a darker blue to do a gradient fill as shown below:

The reason I use two layers to create the gradient is to be able to adjust each layer seperately, should anything needs to be changed.

and you will have the following effect:

Create a new layer called “cloud”, and use the cloud brushes you download, paint some cloud on top of the gradient layers:

Create a new layer called “dirt”, use the dirt brushsets you downloaded, paint some dirt onto the canvas: (don’t paint too much, adjust the flow to around 20%)

Duplicate the dirt layer once and apply the following motion blur settings to the duplicated layer:

and you will have the following effect:

This is the overall effect so far:

Step 2

Now let’s add some grass field to the image. Load the “Grass field 1″ image into Photoshop, select a portion of the grass as shown below:

Paste it onto our document, postion it to the bottom and use a soft brush to erase the top edge:

and here is the effect so far:

Load the “Grass Field 2″ image into Photoshop, cut out the mountain portion as shown below: (in this tutorial, there is no need to make precise selection of the mountain)

Paste it onto our canvas, move it to the right side and use a soft erase tool to remove the edges, as shown below:

Duplicate this mountain once, flip it horizontally and move it to the left, resize if necessary:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 3

Load the “Lookout Tower” image into Photoshop, cut out the tower portion of the image and paste it onto our canvas as shown below:

Add the following layer mask to this layer to remove this edges of the mountain:

Add the following adjustment layer to this lookout tower layer, make sure you tick the “user previous layer as clipping mask” option:

Black and white

Colour Balance

Curves

Levels

Layer mask on Levels adjustment layer:

and you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Now let’s create a ray of light to shoot from the mountain. Create a new layer and use the rectangular tool to draw a selection and fill it with white colour:

Then apply the following Gaussian Blur settings:

Perspective this layer as shown below:

Use a soft brush eraser to remove the top and bottom of the light, as shown below: (Also reduce the layer opacity to around 80%)

Duplicate this layer a few times, adjust the sizes of the duplicated layers, and put them into groups as shown below:

Step 5

Now let’s add a floating rock to the image. Load the “mountain” stock image into Photoshop, then use the quick selection tool to select a piece of rock as shown below:

Paste it on to our document, name this new layer as “big rock”:

Erase the bottom-left portion of the rock with a soft brush to it blends into the cloud:

Add the following 2 adjustment layers to this big rock layer: (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Levels

Curves

and you will have the following effect for the rock:

Duplicate this big rock layer a few times, reduce the size of the rock and scatter the smaller rocks around the canvas, as shown below:

Also render some cloud on the grass to create some foggy effect. To do this, simply use the lasso tool with a 50px feather to draw a selection, set the foregound colour to be white, background colour to be light-grey, then render some cloud in it:

Duplicate this cloud layer a few times and scatter them round the canvas:

Step 6

Now let’s create a ring effect for this image. Create a new layer and use the elliptical tool with 10px feather to draw a seletion as shown below:

right-click and choose “stroke”:

Apply the following stroke settings:

and you will have the following ring effect:

Attach this ring to the big floating rock, make sure you erase the portion behind the rock, as shown below: (use the free transform tool to adjust its size to fit the rock)

Add a curves adjustment on top of all previous layers:

Layer mask on this curves adjustment layer:

As you can see, we add a bit of depth to the sky portion: (upper-left becomes darker than the rest)

and here is the final effect: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this Photoshop tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. Until next time, have a great day!

In the tutorial, I will show you the processes I used to Create an Awesome 3D Text Effect with Abstract Brush Decoration in Photoshop. This is an intermediate tutorial so some steps can be tricky, but why not have a try :)

Here is a preview of the final effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies there. Signup now and get exclusive! Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

You will need the following stock to complete this tutorial:

Any Grunge Brushset

Font

OK let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 740px * 1050px, fill the background layer with black colour. Create a new layer called “texture” and paint some grunge texture onto it:

Duplicate this texture layer once, resize it as shown below:

Erase the corners of the duplicated layer with a big soft brush:

you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Now let’s add a big 3D text onto it. If you have illustrator, use it to render a 3D text. If not, you can download this PSD file and use it for this tutorial.

Place the text to the position shown below, name the layer as “big text”:

Apply the following layer blending option to it:

Color Overlay

Gradient Overlay

you will have the following effect:

Add the following mask to this big text layer:

you will have the following effect:

Also create a new clipping mask layer, grab a big soft white brush to add a highlight to the top-left corner of the big text:

Step 3

Create a layer called “cloud” under the big text layer, use either cloud brush or rendered cloud, to the positions shown below:

Also add a highlight layer with a big soft white brush from the top-left corner:

I also decided to add a bit of splashing effect to the text. So grab a 1px hard brush, apply the following brush dynamics to it:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

Tick the “Airbrush”, “Smoothing” and “Protect Texture” options.

Use this brush and paint some dots to the positions shown below:

You can also add a ray of light on top of the big text to spice things up. To do this, use a soft white brush to do a single-click, then distort it as shown below:

Warp it after the distortion, try to bend the bottom to create a curvy shape:

Position this light on the top right corner of the big text:

Step 4

Now let’s add some variety to the text. Duplicate the big text layer once, cancel the color overlay blending option, resize and position it as shown below:

Add a dark light for the text, painted it with a black soft brush to the position shown below:

Carefully painting some shadow under the text, with a soft black brush:

Duplicate the big text layer once more, resize it and position the layer to the top-left, as shown below:

Add a highlight layer with a soft white brush (single-click to the position shown below):

Carefully paint some shadow under the text, same as the previous step:

Create a new layer called “big text shadow” on top of all previous layer, and grab a big soft brush with black colour, paint some shadow to the bottom of the text, as shown below”

you will have the following effect:

Step 5

Now let’s make another custom brushset. Create a new document sized 40px * 100px, add a new layer and fill it with black colour, hit Ctrl + A and select this new layer:

Go to Edit > Define Brush Preset and create a new brushset:

Then apply the following brush dynamics:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

Tick the “Airbrush”, “Smoothing”, “Protect Texture” options.

Create a new layer just below the original text layer, and start painting. (try different brush size as you go, apply the following smart sharpen filter once you’re done painting)

you will have the following effect:

You can see we also have some see-through effect on the text, because of the layer mask on the big text layer we added earlier:

Step 6

OK we’re almost done. For some final touchups, I added two image adjustment layers on top:

Curves

Color Balance

Layer Mask of Color Balance adjustment layer:

and you will have the following effect:

For add some motions into the images, we can flatten the image, duplicate the background layer once and apply the following motion blur settings to it:

Change the layer blending mode of this blur layer to “Screen” and layer opacity to around 60%, then add the following layer mask on it:

Here is the final effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this Photoshop tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. Until next time, have a great day!

Welcome to the In second volume of Photoshop Mini tutorial series, which is a series I started specifically for Photoshop beginner – to help them understand various aspect of Photoshop by designing something simple but cool.

In the tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this glowing  Floral Pattern in Photoshop. This effect looks cool but the steps are in fact very simple, great for beginners :)

Here is a preview of the final effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive! Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

You will need the following stock to complete this tutorial:

Floral Brushset (Pick one from the list)

Cloud Brushset

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 600px * 600px, fill the background with black colour. Create a new layer called “Cloud” with around 40% opacity, use the cloud brush you downloaded, and paint some cloud onto it:

Create a new layer called “background light”,  grab a big soft brush with white colour, and paint as shown below:

As you can see, by doing so you immediately created a nice background to work on.

Step 2

Create a new layer called “floral pattern”, use the brush you downloaded, paint a floral pattern onto it:

Apply the following layer blending options to this layer:

Drop Shadow

Bevel and Emboss

and you can see now we created some light and shadow effect for the floral pattern:

Step 3

Now we can add a glowing effect to the floral pattern. To do this, simply duplicate the orginal floral layer once, apply the following Gaussian Blur settings to it:

and you will see a glowing edge appear around the floral pattern:

Step 4

Now let’s add some colour to the image. The Color Balance image adjustment layer will do the job. Personally I think it’s a quick and easy way to add colour to an image, without having to use brush and the colour picker.

I chose a golden colour mix: (Settings as shown below)

and you will have the following effect:

Please note that there is no need to use the exact same colour as I used, you’re free the experiment any colour scheme you prefer.

Step 5

Now let’s flatten the image (save a layered copy before you do so). Duplicate the background layer, and apply the following Smart Sharpen filter to it:

As you can, we now have a darkened edge around the floral pattern, also the overall image becomes more crispy and detailed:

Now let’s get on with the bokeh creation. We can do this with brush dynamics (F5).

Create a new layer called “bokeh” on top of all previous layers, grab a around brush with 90% hardness, apply the following brush settings to it:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Transfer (Other Dynamics)

Tick the Airbrush and Smoothing option:

and you will have the following effect:

Step 6

Duplicate the bokeh layer once, and apply the following Smart Sharpen Filter Settings to the duplicated layer:

Drop the opacity of the duplicated layer to around 80%, you will see now we have a highlighted edge appear around the bokeh:

Note: I personally prefer using Smart Sharpen filter to add the edge, other than using the “Stroke” layer blending option. The former produces a clearer, more detailed result in my opinion.

Create a new layer on top of all previous layer called “highlight”, set the layer blending mode to “soft light”, and grab a soft white brush, do a few single-clicks around the floral pattern as shown below:

Finally, add a levels adjustment layer on top, with the following settings: (this will alter the contrast and give the image more depth)

Mask on the levels adjustment layer:

and you will have the following final effect:

That’s it for this beginner-level mini Photoshop tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. Until next time, have a great day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this Zebra Patterned Crimson Text Effect in Photoshop. This is an intermediate level tutorial and some steps can be tricky, but why not have a go :) ?

What I would like to show you in this tutorial in how you can combine the pattern clone stamp with work path to render special effects for your text, and how you can create realistic light and shadow for your environment.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

Alternative Version (with more red colour + a bit of Motion Blur in it)

PSD File Download

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To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Font

Step 1

Creata a new document sized 1300px * 650px. Create a new layer called “floor” and select the lower portion of the canvas as shown below:

Right-click inside the selection and choose “Fill”:

Select the following tile pattern from the “Pattern” category:

Drop the layer opacity to around 40%:

Then perspective the layer as shown below:

add the following layer mask to this floor layer:

and you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Use the font we donwloaded, type some text onto the canvas as shown below:

Apply the following Drop Shadow blending option to this text layer:

Now in order to make a smooth transition from the text layer to the floor layer, as the following layer mask to the text layer: (with Gradient Fill tool)

Now let’s create the shadow for the text. Firstly load the selection of the text layer by Ctrl + Left-click the thumbnail image on the layer palette, then create a new layer called “shadow” under the text layer, maintain the selection and fill it with black colour, flip it vertically and use the free-transform tool to perspective as shown below:

Add the following layer mask to this shadow layer:

and you will have the following effect:

Step 3

Create a new layer on top of the text layer called “zebra texture”. Load the text layer selection and right-click on it, choose “make work path” option:

Grab the Pattern Stamp Tool from the toolbox:

Choose the Zebra texture from the dropdown window:

Set tolerance to 2.0 pixels:

Choose the Pen Tool, then right-click on the path and choose “Stroke Path”:

Stroke the path with Pattern Stamp we just chose:

and you will have the following effect:

Change the layer blending mode to be “overlay” for this zebra texture layer, you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Now create a new layer under the “shadow” layer called “back light”. Grab the Lasso Tool with a 50px feather setting to draw a selection, then render some cloud inside it:

Hit Ctrl + L to bring up the Levels adjustment tool and apply the following settings:

Use the free transform tool to reduce the size of the cloud, position it behind the text:

Duplicate this light layer a few more times, put them around the text as shown below: (reduce their layer opacity to around 20-30%)

Add the following two adjustment layers to the top of all previous layers:

Curves

Levels

and you will have the following effect:

Go back to the text layer, change the text colour to be black, and you will have the following effect:

Step 5

Now we’re almost done. Flatten the image and duplicate the background layer once, apply the following Reduce Noise filter settings to the duplicated layer: (we don’t want this text effect to be sharp)

I decided to add a line a smaller text in the far distant to make a transition effect for the main text. So I duplicate the background layer again, and apply the following Motion blur filter to the duplicated layer:

Then resize this layer to a smaller scale, then move it up to the position as shown below:

Add the following layer mask to this layer:  (use Gradient Tool)

Then reduce the layer opacity to around 30%, you will have the following effect:  (a barely visible, samll text in the far distance)

I added the following two image adjustment layers for final touchups:

Curves

Color Balance

Mask on Colour Balance layer: (for adding image depth)

and here is the final effect I have for this tutorial:

Alternative Version (with more red colour + a bit of Motion Blur in it)

That’s for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. If you have any question, just drop me a comment below. Have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this Awesome Freestyle Artwork via Mixing Shapes and Dirt Texture in Photoshop. This is an intermediate level tutorial and some steps can be tricky, but why not have a go :) ?

Alogn the way, I will show some retouch techniques, the use custom brush and the make of some nice abstract lines and shapes, plus lighting effect skills.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

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To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Model

Dirt Brush

Step 1

Create a new doucment sized 880px * 1200px, leave the background color as White. Create a new layer called “texture”, load the dirt brush into Photoshop and use it to paint some texture on it: (set the brush opacity to around 40%)

One thing you need to remember is when you paint this texture layer, try to use a combination of different brushes in the set, and experiement with different brush sizes as you go:

Once you finish the painting, duplicate this texture layer once and use the free transform tool to perspective it as shown below:

Reduce the layer opacity of this layer to around 50%, you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Load the model image into Photoshop, cut out the girl and paste it onto our canvas, name this new layer as “Model”:

Add the following two adjustment layer to the model layer: (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option when adding them)

Levels:

Layer mask on levels adjustment layer:

Curves:

Layer mask on Curves adjustment layer:

Add a new clipping mask layer for the model layer, grab a soft white brush and paint to the areas as shown below:

Change the blending mode of this new clipping mask layer to “Soft Light”, and you will have the following effect:

I feel the hair of the model need to brighten up a bit, so I created aonther clipping mask layer and used a small white brush with 60% – 70% hardness to paint some white lines on the hair:

Change the blending mode to “Overlay” for this hair painting layer, reduce the layer opacity to around 80%, you will have the following effect:

and here is the overall effect so far:

Step 3

Create a new layer called “Curvy Line” and use the Pen Tool to draw a path as shown below:

Choose a 13px, 100% hardness brush:

Stroke the Path with this brush:

Make sure you tick the “Simulate Pressure” setting:

and you will have the following effect:

Duplicate the curvy line layer a few times, resize and rotate those layers, and position them as shown below:

Step 4

Now let’s get on with the curvy line creation. For tutorial purpose, I made a new document in Photoshop.

Create a new layer and use the Rectangular Marquee tool to draw a seletion as shown below:

Fill the selection with a colour of your choice:

hit Ctrl + T and right-click on the rectangle, choose “Distort”:

Then Hold the Alt key and Drag the bottm right corner of the rectangle to distort it as shown below:

Then duplicate this layer a few times, rotate and resize each layer as shown below: (use colour balance and hue adjustment tool for colour variation)

Then merge the duplicated layer together:

Hit Ctrl + T and right-click on the shapes, choose “Warp” option:

Warp the shapes as shown below:

That’s it, you can use those warped shapes in your image. You can choose you own colour and size, no need to following the exact colour in my image:

Apply the shapes in different location will add depths and variety for your image:

Step 5

This step is optional. I personally feel like adding a bit more depth and variety to the image by have a “shadow” copy of the girl on the canvas somewhere.

Create a new layer called “Girl Shadow” just below the model layer, then load the selection of the model layer and fill the selection with Gray colour:

Resize this layer to a very small scale, flip it horizontally and position it as shown below: (erase the top right part of the girl so it blends into the background)

I added a new layer called “shadow” with “Soft light” blending mode, and use a soft black brush to paint some shadow on the foot area:

Optional: add some more abstract lines around the canvas with Pen Tool Strokes for more variety:

Now we can add some overall shadows and highlights on the image by create a new layer on top of all previous layers, use a soft brush with black or white colour, painting on the new layer as shown below:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 6

Now we can apply some final touches to the image. Flatten the image (save a layered copy before you do so), then duplicate the background layer once, apply the following Smart Sharpen filter to the duplicated layer:

We can also add some lighting effect to the image by duplicate the background layer once more, and apply the Angled Strokes filter to it, with the settings below:

Reduce the layer opacity of this angled strokes layer to around 40%, you will see now we have some really nice lighting effect as shown below:

On left leg:

Around the chest area:

I also add a color balance adjustment layer to image with the following settings:

and you will have the following final effect:

OK that’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational. If you have any question, drop a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

Welcome to the 25th volume of “Creativity Fine-Tuning: Best of PSD Vault Flickr Group”, which is a showcase I run regularly here on psdvault.com featuring some fantastic, highly-creative design works in the PSD Vault Flickr Group.

Hope you enjoy those works as much as I did and find them inspirational! Meanwhile, if you have some cool designs and would like to be featured here on PSD Vault, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group.

If you like those works, then show those awesome designers some support! Click on the image to visit the author’s flickr page and drop them a comment :)

Here goes the list, enjoy!

That’s it for this post! Hope you enjoy it and find it inspirational! Remember, if you have some cool designs and would like to be featured here, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group and sumbit your work there.

Until next time, have a  nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you how to make planet, star and meteor impact in Photoshop in a quick and effective manner. This is intermediate level tutorial so some steps can be a little tricky, but why not have a try :)

Here is a preview of  the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive! Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

OK let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Soil Texture

Step 1

Create a new document sized 740px * 700px, fill the background with black colour. Create a new layer called “planet”, and use the Elliptical Marquee Tool with 1px feature, hold down Shift Key and draw a circle as shown below:

Press Shift + F5 and fill the circle with white colour:

Move this circle to the bottom right corner of the canvas:

On this planet layer, apply the following layer blending options:

Drop Shadow

Outer Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay

and here is the effect so far:

Step 2

New I would like to add some irregularly lighting around the planet. To do this, add a layer mask on the planet layer as shown below:

and here is the effect after applying the layer mask:

Load the “Soil Texture” into Photoshop, load the selection of the planet layer and move the selection onto the soil texture, then copy and paste a piece of soil onto our canvas as shown below: (make sure you fit the selection to the planet circle we drew before)

Change the blending mode of this soil layer to “Overlay”, drop the layer opacity to 65%, you will have the following effect:

Add the following adjustment layer to the soil texture layer: (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option)

Black and White

Levels

and here is the effect so far:

Step 3

Now let’s add a bit of cloudy effect around the planet to make it look more mysterious. Create a new layer called “cloud” and use the Lasso tool with 50px feather to draw a selection as shown below:

Render some cloud inside the selection as shown below:

Press Ctrl + L to bring up the Level adjustment tool, apply the following settings to add some contrast in the cloud:

Warp the cloud as shown below:

Then resize and rotate the cloud if necessary, and make a few duplicates of the cloud layer, scatter them around the planet to areas shown below:

Keep adding more cloud effect around the planet by duplicate the cloud layer a few times, adjust the layer opacity along the way to fine-tune the effect:

Step 4

Now let’s add a simple meteor effect to the planet. Create a new layer and use a big soft brush with white colour, do a single click to the area shown below, adjust the brush size accordingly:

Duplicate this light layer twice, change the blending mode of the duplicated layer to “soft light”:

Then create a new layer, this time use a smaller soft white brush, do a single click to the spot shown below:

Duplicate this smaller light layer twice, and change the blending mode of the duplicated layer to “overlay”, you will have the following effect:

Create a new layer on top of all previous layers, use a soft white brush and do a single click to the position shown below:

Distort this dot as show below:

Hit Enter, then apply the distort option again as shown below:

Add a Curves adjustment layer on top to tweak the image contrast a bit:

and here is the effect I have so far:

Step 5

Now let’s add a new layer called “Star” on top of all previous layers, fill the layer with black colour, and go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and apply the following settings:

Change the blending mode of the star layer to “Screen”, you will have the following effect:

Of course we don’t want the entire canvas to be covered with noise, so use a soft eraser to remove the areas where you don’t want the noise to appear:

For add some depth to the star field, we can use the dodge tool to highlight centain part of the image where you want the star to become brighter than others:

For tutorial purpose, here is a before and after view of the dodge tool so you can the effect: (the setting for Dodge Tool is Midtone, and Exposure 70%)

Before:

After:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 6

Ok we’re nearly done. For the final tune-ups, I flattened the image, (good idea to save an extra copy before you do so), duplicate the background layer once and applied the Smart Sharpen filter on the duplicated layer:

I also added a colour layer on top and added some color to the areas indicated below with a soft brush:

The area where meteor effect is:

and the bottom left portion of the planet:

For adding some painting effect to the image, you can again duplicate the background layer, then use the “Accented Edges” filter under the Brush Strokes option on the duplicated layer with the following settings:

As you can see, certain part of the image will have some brush stroke effect:

and the image become a bit more painting-like:

You can also add a layer mask to hide certain parts which you don’t want the painting effect to show:

and here is the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

OK that’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational. If you have any question, drop a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

Hi there, welcome to the 2nd volume of the “Inspirational and Creative Web Links From PSD Vault Facebook Fan Page” series! In this post, I hand-picked 15 Inspirational and Creative Web Links From PSD Vault Facebook Fan Page, out of hundreds of links I collected in the past few months.

Meanwhile, If you wish to get more, simply join the PSD Vault Facebook Fan Page. Fresh Photoshop and design links are added everyday.

For your convenience, I have put those links into 3 categories: Photoshop tutorials, Design inspirations and other Photoshop resources.

Here goes the list, hope you enjoy them and find them useful!

Photoshop Tutorials

Creating Retro Folded Typography Using Photoshop

Create Blood and Milk Typography Poster in Photoshop

100% Non-destructive manipulation: Create a glamour scene in Photoshop

How to Break an Egg in Photoshop

Making a Book of Magical Playground Scene

Design Inspirations

40 Creative Advertisements With Unexpected Ideas

33 Amazing Examples of Monochromatic Photography

40 most breathtaking landscape wallpapers to adorn your desktop

Triangle Poster Design Inspiration: 35 Mind-Blowing Examples

25 Beautiful 3D Abstract Artwork

50 Informative and Well-Designed Infographics

Other Photoshop Resources

The Top 30 Text Effect Tutorials for Awesome Results

40 Handy Photoshop Custom Shape Sets: Save Time

35 Basic Tutorials to Get You Started with Photoshop

15 Awesome and Creative Fonts to Download

That’s it for this post! Hope you enjoy this collection and find those links useful. If you wish to get more, simply join the PSD Vault Facebook Fan Page. Fresh Photoshop and design links are added everyday.

Cheers and have a great day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to Create Awesome Splashing Water Text Effect in Photoshop. Along the way, you will learn how you can incorporate water splash brushsets into your text and create great effect from that. Have a try!

Here is a preview of the final effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive! Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

OK let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Water Splashing Brush

Lake

Font

Step 1

Create a new document sized 940px * 700px, fill the background layer with black. Load the Lake stock image into Photoshop, use the Lasso Tool with a 40px feather setting, draw a selection of the lake portion:

Copy and paste the selection on to our canvas, use a big soft brush to erase its edges, and reduce its layer opacity to around 60%. The effect is as shown below:

Duplicate the water layer twice, move the duplicated layer to the left and right of the original water layer, as shown below: (set the layer opacity to slightly lower than the original water layer to create depth)

Duplicate the original water layer once more, resize it to a smaller piece and position it to the center, then increase the layer opacity to 100%:

Add the following two adjustment layers on top of all layers created so far:

Curves

Levels

and you will have the following effect so far: (centre portion highlighted, and that will be the text will be placed)

Step 2

Now use any font you like, type a single letter on the canvas as shown below:

Apply the following layer blending options to this text layer:

Bevel and Emboss

Gradient Overlay:

Stroke

and here is the effect so far:

Step 3

Now let’s add some noise to the text and get ready for the water splashing effect later on. Create a new layer on top of the text called “noise”, load the selection of the text layer and fill the selection with black colour, go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and apply the following setting:

The effect after you apply the noise filter:

Change the blending mode of thie noise layer to “screen”, drop the layer opacity to around 35%, you will have the following effect:

Create a new layer on top of the noise layer, name it “light and shadow”, use a combination of black and white brush, paint it as shown below:

Change the blending mode of this light and shadow layer to “Overlay” – as you can see, this add some lighting contrast to the text:

Step 4

Now we can paint some water splashing effect around text. Create a new layer called “water splash” and load the water splash brushes into Photoshop, choose some brushes from the set and paint around the text, as shown below:

Make sure when you paint the water splashing effect, use a combination of big and small sized brushsets, also adjust the flow and opacity of the brush, DO NOT just use one setting for the whole thing:

Keep adding more water splashing around the text – to be more creative, paint some water streams dropping from the edges of the text:

For the water streams, I used a 6px, soft white brush to paint in addition to the water splashing brush, as shown below:

Use the same technique to paint the water stream on the left:

You can use a small, soft white brush to draw around the edge of the text to create some waterflow/highlight effect:

Highlight effect for the text edges:

here is the effect you will be aiming to achieve so far:

Step 5

Now we will make the water splash around the text sharpen a bit. To do this, duplicate the water splash layer you’re painting on once (if you have searval layers for the water splash, group them first, then right-click on the group and choose “merge group” option).

Apply the following Smart Sharpen filter setting to the duplicated layer:

and you can see the water splash sharpened and become more visible:

Now create a new layer called “shadow” under the original text layer, grab a black soft brush and paint some shadow on the water and under the text, as shown below:

Optionally, you can add more water splashing effect around the text:

To make the text effect more dramatic, you can add some misty effect by create a new layer named “mist” just above the background layer, use a Lasso Tool with 50px feather, draw a selection around the text as shown below:

Render some cloud inside the selection, drop the layer opacity of this mist layer to around 50%, and you will have the following misty effect:

Step 6

Now we’re into the final stage of this tutorial. I feel like adding some highlights around the text, so as to make the certain parts stand out. To do this, create a new light on top of all previus layers, use a small white soft brush to paint (single-click) to the points shown below:

Now you can also use the Distrot option (available when you press Ctrl + T, then right-click) to adjust the shape of the light, to fit the angel of the latter:

I added one Color Balance image adjustment layer just to add a bit more light blue colour into the image:

Layer Mask on the Color Balance adjustment layer:

and you will have the following final effect:

OK that’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational. If you have any question, drop a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this cool Abstract Artwork via Custom Brushsets and Particle Effect in Photoshop. I will demonstrate how you can create your own brushset and use them to add particle effect to the image to spice it up. Have a try!

Here is a preview of the final effect for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

Alternative Light Version:

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive! Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

OK let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Girl

Some Grunge Brushes

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1200px * 800px, fill the background with a light grey colour, and some random lighting and grungy texture on it as shown below:

Load the “girl” stock image into Photoshop, cut out the girl from the rest of the image, place her to the lower left side of the canvas:

To bring out some light on the girl image, add the folloing two adjustment layers onto it (make sure to tick the “use previous layer as clipping mask” option when adding them)

Levels

Curves

and here is the effect so far:

Step 2

Now create new layer, and random paint some abstract textures around the girl:

Now apply a layer mask on this abstract painting layer. On the layer mask, use a mixture of grungy, halftone, and hard circle brush, as shown below:

Now let’s add some light strips. Create a new layer and grab a soft round brush, do a single click on the top edge of the canvas:

Compress it down as shown below:

Rotate this light strip as shown below:

Duplicate this light strip layer a few times, scatter them around the girl for more effect:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 3

I decided to turn this image into a darker version (just my personal taste), so I went ahead and add the following two adjustment layers on top of all previous layers:

Levels

Add the following layer mask on the Levels adjustment layer: (as you can see, I apply some light grungy texture, plus some hard circle brush on where the girl is)

Curves

Layer Mask on the Curves adjustment layer:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 4

Now we can practice some Pen Tool techniques. Create a new layer and draw a work path as shown below:

Right-click on the path and choose “Stroke Path” with a 9px hard circle brush:

Make sure you tick the “Simulate Pressure” setting:

Now you will have a curvy line, you can use free transform to distort, rotate it for more variety:

In the mean time, you can try a softer and bigger brush for stroking the path, also scatter the duplicated curvy lines around for more effect:

Step 5

Now let’s make a custom brush for adding some little particle effect. Create a new file called “brush” (size 200px * 200px) and use a the Pen Tool to draw a shape like this:

Right-click on the shape and choose “Fill Path …”:

Fill it with black colour:

Now make the background layer transparent: (after you fill the shape with black colour)

Now go to “Edit > Define Brush Preset…”:

Save this brushset, then bring up the brush presets (F5) and apply the following settings:

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Other Dynamics

Tick the Airbrush, Smoothing, Protect Texture options. Then try and do some random painting on the canvas (create a new layer first) and test out the effect:

Combine the Free Transform tool, distort, rotate and warp the particles for extra effects:

Apply the particles random on the canvas as shown below: (you can also adjust the brush size, flow and opacity as you go)

Step 6

OK let’s do some final tune-ups. I flattened the image and duplicated the background layer, apply the following Smart Sharpen filter on the duplicated layer:

Color Balance

Layer Mask on the Color Balance Adjustment Layer:

Levels

and here is the effect you’ll have:

The main part of the tutorial concludes here, however you can still experiment different colour balance settings, filter effect and so on:

a light version:

OK that’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational. If you have any question, drop a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

Welcome to the 24th volume of “Creativity Fine-Tuning: Best of PSD Vault Flickr Group”, which is a showcase I run regularly here on psdvault.com featuring some fantastic, highly-creative design works in the PSD Vault Flickr Group.

Hope you enjoy those works as much as I did and find them inspirational! Meanwhile, if you have some cool designs and would like to be featured here on PSD Vault, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group.

If you like those works, then show those awesome designers some support! Click on the image to visit the author’s flickr page and drop them a comment :)

Here goes the list, enjoy!

That’s it for this post! Hope you enjoy it and find it inspirational! Remember, if you have some cool designs and would like to be featured here, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group and sumbit your work there.

Until next time, have a  nice day!

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this cool-looking, awsome glowing edge text effect in Photoshop. Have a try!

Along the way, we will practice the use of Pen tool, layer blending options, texture painting and some image adjustments in Photoshop.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

alternative version with cloud and more lighting effect:

PSD File Download

You can download the PSD File for this tutorial via the VIP Members Area for only $4.95/Month (or less)! You will not only get this PSD File, but also 40+ other PSD Files + Extra Goodies + Exclusive Photoshop tutorial there. Signup now and get exclusive! Find out more about the VIP Members Areas

No Stock image is required for this tutorial. This tutorial is best for Photoshop CS2 or +.

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 1300px * 780px, fill the background with black and create a new layer called “texture”, grab some grungy brushsets from the sites such as qbrushes.net or brusheezy.com, paint some texture on it:

After you’ve done the painting, hit “Ctrl + T” and right-click on the texture, choose “perspective” and narrow the top border the texture:

After you perspective the texture, scale the texture down as shown below:

Use a big soft brush to erase the edges of the texture so it blends into the background:

Duplicate this texture layer, resize it to a smaller piece, rotate and position the duplicated layer as shown below:

Duplicate the grungy texture layer once more, this time position it to the right:

Step 2

Now type some texts on the canvas. You can use any text you like, the one I used for this tut can be downloaded here.

Apply the following layer blending options to this text layer:

Drop Shadow

Outer Glow

Bevel and Emboss

Contour

Stroke

and you will have the following effect so far:

Step 3

Now we’re onto creating the level effect for the text. We can do this by simple duplicated the original text layer twice, adjust the layer opacity of each text layer according to the settings below:

Move each layer a bit away from each other:

and this is the overall effect so far:

Now we will add the glowing edge effect for the text layer. To do this, load the selection of the text layer (any one of the three):

Click on the Rectangular Marquee tool (or press “M” key):

then right-click inside the selection, choose “make work path”:

set tolerance to “2.0″ pixels:

and you will have the following work path created around the text:

click the Pen tool symbol from the toolbox, right-click on the work path and choose “stroke path”:

Use the following 5px hard round brush:

and with “Simulate Pressure” setting enabled:

Stroke the work path. You will have the following effect:

Step 4

Now we can add some lights on the bottom of the text so it blends better with the texture. To do this, create a new layer on top of all previous layers called “light” and grab a big soft brush, do a single-click as shown below:

Compress this light layer and move it the bottom of the text:

Use Warp tool to adjust the light, in order to fit the curve of the texture:

Step 5

Now let’s add some shadow for the text. Create a new layer on top of all previous layer called “shadow”, load the selection of the one of the text layer, fill the selection with black colour:

Hit “Ctrl + T” and right-click, choose “Flip Vertical”:

Perspective this shadow layer as shown below:

Apply the following Gaussion Blur settings to it:

Move the shadow layer down and change its blending mode to “soft light”, you will have the following effect:

Step 6

Now create a new layer on top of all previous layer, name it “Abstract line” and grab the Pen Tool, draw a random path as shown below:

If you feel like some adjustments, you can hold “Ctrl” key and drag the anchor points to change the path:

Stroke the path using the same settings as previous step: (5px hard round brush, simulate pressure)

Now add a layer mask on this abstract line layer to hide some portion of the lines behind the text:

(Hint: to quickly add this mask, load the selection of the top-most text layer, then click on the layer mask, and go to Edit > Clear to clear out the text portion)

You can see by adding this layer mask we can hide the parts of the abstract line:

You can also duplicate this abstract line layer a few times for more effect (disable the layer mask for the duplicated layers, and resize those layers for depth)

Step 7

OK we’re nearly done. To finish up this effect, we can add a few adjustment layer to fine-tune the color and lighting contrast.

I added the following adjustment layers on top of all previous layers:

Color Balance

Curves

and here is the final effect for this tutorial:

I also made an alternative version with cloud and extra lights added to it: (click to enlarge)

OK that’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful and inspirational. If you have any question, drop a comment below and I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

After some thoughts about future articles/tutorials on PSD Vault, I decided to start a new series: Mini PS tutorial. In this series, I will include some very simple Photoshop tutorials designed for Photoshop beginners. The aim of those mini-tutorials are simple: to familiarise you with a variety of Photoshop tools and show you how to combine them to produce great effect for your design.

The effect are mostly abstract, and you can apply them to a wide range of design works you might have, to spice things up :)

In this first volume of Photoshop Mini tutorial series, I will show you the steps I took to create this Simple Abstract Shining Wave Line in Photoshop in just 5 steps. Have a try!

Here is a preview of the final effect we will be creating:

Alternative version:

PSD File Download

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No Stock image is required for this tutorial. This tutorial is best for Photoshop CS2 or +.

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new document sized 470px * 330px, fill the background with black color. Create a new layer called “baseline” and grab a big white brush with 0% hardness, do a single-click on this new layer:

Hit Ctrl + T and enable the free tranform tool:

Compress this dot with the free transform tool, make sure you hold the “Alt” key while drag the top edge:

Reduce the layer opacity of this baseline layer to around 60%, you will have the following effect:

Step 2

Duplicate this baseline layer once. On the duplicated layer, again we use the free-tranform tool to scale it to a smaller size, and position it to the place as shown below:

Grab a smaller soft white brush, and do a few single-clicks along the baseline for some variety:

Step 3

Ok let’s make a new brushset. Hit “F5″ and bring up the brush window, apply the following brush presets:

Shape Dynamics

Other dynamics:

Make sure to tick the “airbrush”, “smoothing” and “protect texture” settings. Save the brushset if you wish.

Then use the Pen Tool, draw a work path as shown below:

Hit “Ctrl + Shift + N” and create a new layer called “abstract lines”, right-click and choose “Stroke Path”:

Make sure you tick the “Simulate Pressure” on the new window:

and here is the effect you will have:

Step 4

On this abstract line layer, apply the following “Motion Blur” settings:

Hit “Ctrl + F” and re-apply this blur effect a few more times, and you will have following effect:

Use the free transform tool to scale it as shown below:

For variety, we can duplicate this abstract line layer a few more times, and scatter them around the baseline:

We can also add some highlights to the abstract line by duplicate the baseline layer a few times, and drag the duplicated layers to the top, resize each of them to smaller sizes and rotate them 90 degree clockwise: (increase the opacity to around 90% for the duplicated layers)

Step 5

To fine-tune the image, we can add the following adjustment layers to the image:

Curves

Color Balance

Levels

To add some particle effect around the lines, we can use the smart sharpen filter: (settings shown below, make sure you flatten the layers first)

and this is the final effect I have for this tutorial:

You can also experiment different colour scheme, here is an alternative version for this tutorial:

That’s it for this beginner-level mini Photoshop tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. Until next time, have a great day!

Futuristic Digital Art has been one of my favourite types of Digital Art – I love the ways that those artists utilise their imagination and not to mention, advanced techniques in 3D rendering and Photoshop to achieve amazing effect.

In this post, I will showcase you 30 Magnificant Digital Artworks of Futuristic Environment I collected on deviantart.com, and hopefully you will enjoy them as much as I do and find some inspiration for your own project.

When you look at those works, pay attention to the smaller details such as lighting, shadow, texture techniques used in them. Also if you see some interesting effect (such as particle, laser, and cloud), don’t be afraid to experiment with them :)

Here goes the list, enjoy!

OK that’s it for this post! Hope you enjoy those works and find them inspirational!

Until next time, have a great day!